Something outrageous is
happening in Rome: a new pope who was reportedly elected with a clear
mandate to reform the curia has, over the course of a year and a half in
office, been reappointing curial officials and moving bishops around in
order to assemble a team that shares his priorities and can help
implement his program for reform.
What's that? You're not outraged? I must have put it wrong. Let me
try again: an upstart newcomer pope with no respect for tradition is
carrying out a reign of terror at the Vatican, virtually executing
respected princes of the church by denying them their God-given right to
a high-status curial berth for life -- right under the nose of the
defenseless pope emeritus who appointed them. Madness!
Sandro Magister, Vatican journalist and gloomy observer of the Franciscan papacy, is taking the latter view, as evidenced by
his breathless report
on rumors that Cardinal Raymond Burke is about to be removed from his
position as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura and reassigned to a
largely honorary post, Prefect of the Knights of Malta, at the tender
age of 66.
You remember Cardinal Burke, formerly bishop of St. Louis and, before
that, La Crosse. His Wikipedia entry has an extensive section on his
"Notable Actions and Statements" that may jog your memory. (He has also come up at dotCommonweal now and then: see
here , and
here , and
here , and
here .)
He is, in Magister's telling, an eminent man of virtue ("With a very
devout personality, he is also recognized as having the rare virtue of
never having struck any deals to obtain ecclesiastical promotions or
benefices") and an indispensible canon-law expert, now condemned to the
"metaphorical guillotine" by a capricious pontiff. Where conservatives
regard him as an upright defender of church teaching -- Magister
describes him as "not afraid to follow [canon law] to the most
uncomfortable consequences" -- others view him as prone to unnecessarily
divisive grandstanding over things like giving Communion to politicians
and Sheryl Crow benefit concerts. (Magister calls this being "free in
his judgments.") He is known as a promoter of the Tridentine Mass --
you've no doubt seen
photos
of the man in his cappa magna -- and a supporter of the efforts to
bring schismatics like the Society of St. Pius X back into communion
with Rome. He is not, in short, much in sync with the Francis agenda,
and that Francis should want to move him out of a position of influence
is not surprising. (I think it's a very good idea, myself.)
We don't actually know yet that he won't get another job, one that
would keep him a little busier than his duties with the Knights of
Malta. But Magister is already convinced that this is a "definitive
downgrading," a "grave demotion of one of the most untarnished
personalities the Vatican curia knows." (Well, nobody ever said the
curia was in great shape.) And this after Francis "humiliated" Burke by
removing him
from the congregation for bishops. The rumored reassignment is an
"exile," an ignominous fate for a man who by rights should be moved, if
at all, only to bigger and better things. That, Magister takes for
granted, is how it is supposed to work.
Well, it has worked that way, for a long time. But Pope Francis has
been clear that he believes part of reforming the church, and the curia
in particular, must involve reforming the attitudes of bishops toward
their work. Shortly after his election, in May 2013,
he said :
“Let us think of the damage done to the People of God by men and women
of the church who are careerists, climbers, who 'use' the People, the
Church, our brothers and sisters—those they should be serving—as a
springboard for their own ends and personal ambitions. These people do
the church great harm.” One way to protect against careerism in the
hierarchy is to stop allowing the curia to serve as a tenured berth for
bishops who fail up out of pastoral responsibilities and into
administrative ones, and to stop assuming that a bishop who gets called
to Rome to serve will stay there in perpetuity. The implication is that
running a diocese is all right for ordinary bishops, but the really good
ones can expect to be rescued from that drudgery in time.
Is it possible that Francis is doing more than humiliating enemies
here? Could he be trying to send the message to bishops that they should
focus on being bishops, on serving and being close to their people,
rather than on getting a lifetime high-status gig in the Vatican?
Perhaps he thinks curial terms should be limited, to keep the focus on
service, not status, and prevent the insularity he has so often
identified as damaging to the church. That's the view of Andrea
Tornielli
at Vatican Insider
regarding the recent reassignment of Cardinal Llovera from the
Congregation for Divine Worship to the position of archbishop of
Valencia. "Those who attempt to present his departure from the Roman
Curia as a downgrade, or even a 'punishment' could not be more wrong,"
Tornielli wrote. "Firstly, because 'for a shepherd there is nothing
better than being among his flock.' And also because it was the cardinal
himself to ask Pope Francis to return to serving as bishop in a
diocese."
Did Burke ask to leave the curia? Probably not. Will he get a
diocese? We don't know. But surely a man of such great and incorruptible
virtue will have no problem finding a way to serve God and his church
wherever he ends up. I understand why traditionalists in particular
would be dismayed to see Burke losing influence -- but Francis pretty
clearly thinks Benedict's focus on mollifying and wooing traditionalists
was an error. (This is one of those times it might be wise to remember
that he comes from South America, and that his origins may influence his
perspective on the trouble traditionalists and schismatics can cause...
See also
The Curious Case of Carlos Urrutigoity .)
I think he's right about that. Opinions will differ. But the man is the
pope; he's allowed to align his personnel choices with his priorities.
When the
Guardian asked me to opine on what Benedict's successor -- whoever he might be -- could do for the church in the United States, I said:
he could develop new criteria for bishops, calling
for men whose gifts and inclinations are more pastoral than political.
The kind of bishops needed in the 21st-century church, especially in the
rapidly changing church in America, will be dedicated to repairing
divisions, not deepening them.
Imagine my surprise to watch as Francis
has done exactly that .
But, I also noted at the time, he'll have to work with the bishops and
priests he already has. The least we can do, it seems to me, is allow
Francis to move some people around. Finally, if I may quote myself once
more, I said, "the ideal pope will find a way to tend to his main
responsibility, the unity of the Church, while demonstrating to the
world that the Church is concerned with much more than its own power and
authority."
Is Francis the ideal pope? Magister would obviously say no. But if
his making over the curia is perceived as ruthless bloodlust, then
Francis's comments about the curse of careerism are, if anything, too
mild. So I say,
Viva la revolucion!
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